Authorities discover plot to kill Colombian journalist

May 15, 2013 3:48 PM ET

Bogotá, May 15, 2013--Colombian authorities must bring
to justice all those responsible for an alleged plot to assassinate a
journalist and two political analysts who had been investigating links between local
politicians and organized crime, the Committee to Protect Journalists said
today.

Andrés Villamizar, who heads the official
National Protection Unit that oversees protection for Colombians who have been
threatened, told reporters on
Tuesday that an assassin had been hired and paid to kill Gonzalo Guillén, a
freelance investigative journalist who has produced documentaries and reported
for the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald.
Two political analysts, León Valencia and Ariel Ávila, who work for the think
tank Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, were also targeted in the plot, the
reports said. Valencia is also a widely read columnist for the Bogotá
newsmagazine Semana.

News accounts reported that authorities on
Tuesday identified the hit man, who is currently a fugitive. Villamizar told reporters that the suspect
had traveled to Bogotá to commit the crime. He said that Guillén, Valencia, and
Ávila were receiving government protection.

Valencia told CPJ that he believed the plot was
likely linked to a 2011 investigation that he and Ávila
had carried out for the Interior Ministry that linked about 130 gubernatorial
and mayoral candidates in northern Colombia to left-wing rebels, drug
traffickers, and other criminal groups. Valencia
also said that Guillén was investigating the
same issues for a documentary.

In the
past, journalistic investigations into links between politicians and organized
crime have often led to criminal charges, which likely provoke
threats, according to Villamizar. "As accusations are made public, it generates
more threats, but that is the price we Colombians must pay," he told El Espectador.

"We strongly condemnthe conspiracy to
assassinateGonzalo Guillén, León Valencia and Ariel Ávila, which comes
against the backdrop of resurgent violence and threats against Colombian
journalists in recent weeks," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program
coordinator for the Americas, from New York. "Authorities must pursue this
investigation until all those responsible are brought to justice."

The threats come amid a difficult period for
Colombian journalists. On May 5, eight provincial reporters covering land restitution
efforts by the government were threatened by a group that
said they had 24 hours to abandon the northern city of Valledupar. Ricardo
Calderón, who heads Semana magazine's investigative unit, barely escaped
a May 1 assassination attempt, according to
news reports.

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